academic.oup.com
In Germany, the current outbreak of mass social media-induced illness is initiated by a ‘virtual’ index case, who is the second most successful YouTube creator in Germany and enjoys enormous popularity among young people. Affected teenagers present with similar or identical functional ‘Tourette-like’ behaviours, which can be clearly differentiated from tics in Tourette syndrome.
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patients often reported to be unable to perform unpleasant tasks because of their symptoms resulting in release from obligations at school and home, while symptoms temporarily completely disappear while conducting favourite activities.
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Notes -
How do you go about telling someone "Im sorry, but it seems likely that your disorder/lifestyle/lived-experience is the result of a sociogenic contagion", aka 'you got meme'd on, son'. Seems like an awkward conversation.
And also, I suppose, would even a conclusively proof of sociogenic origin automatically devalue said disorder/etc? Society is pretty accustomed to giving religions at least a partial pass despite being a pretty clear case of memery. I'm also reminded of the pathogenic theory of homosexuality - so what if it's caused by a virus, if you're happy the way you are?
I wouldn't say a virus is quite the term for it. A meme, in the Dawkinian sense, describes it well.
A meme rarely spreads purely through social influence though. Religion, cultural trends, and jokes app spread because there's some deeper appeal than just fitting in.
I'd say this is a case where it's even more likely there's a deeper appeal to accepting the social contagion, since there's the obvious downside of being stigmatized for neurological disorders, whether real or imagined.
My first guess would be that there's a shared, desperate need to be unique, yet still find comfort in some sort of comraderie.
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